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I was thinking that it would be great to create a collaborative map on "Kite Flying Spots".I think it would be a really useful tool for people to find flying spots around them which they might have not discovered, to help people that travel and that want to take their kites with them, for newbies to find colleagues to help them start, etc.

Now, as I was thinking on how to do this, it became apparent that we must create a template of information items to include in every flying spot tag. This will ensure that we all use the same information format to keep the map consistent throughout. Otherwise some spots might be exuberantly described while others might only have the graphical tag and nothing else.

So I propose the template below as a starting point.Please provide your input on suggestions to enhance it (add missing items or take away items which are not too useful).

Once we have the template agreed upon by all (most) of us, I can start the map and invite all who is interested in adding information to it.I would not make it open to editing to all the world because we can get "crap" from people that think they are really "funny". So I would only do it by invitation. On the other hand, the map would indeed be open to everyone for seeing, exploring and get them interested in kite flying.

What do you all think about this?

OK, here's my first attempt at the template:

Local Name of Place: e.g. Liberty Park, Uncle Will's Meadow, Sandy Beach, ...Type of kites to fly in this spot: SLK, Dual Lines, Quads (should we include Kite Surf, Kite buggies, etc?)Best time of year to fly in this spot: either month range (e.g. May-Oct) or season (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter; taking into account northern/southern hemisphere)Best time of day to fly: e.g. morning, midday, afternoon, evening, ...Wind range: in MPH & KmPHMain Wind Directions: e.g. NNE-NNWType of wind: clean, irregular, gusty, ...Terrain conditions: e.g. smooth grass park, gently sloping mountain meadow, clean beach, indoor sports facility, etc....Temperature range: to know how one must dress to fly in that spot...Average Amount of Regular Pilots: to know how crowded it can get of kite pilotsPotential Dangers: e.g. beach can get crowded in good weather, electric lines close by, dogs are allowed to run around, ...Other Comments: free to put anything else.

Imagine a world map with all this information for the main flying spots!Isn't this a great tool?!

Well, it was good to bring it up and someone spread the word. I didn't know it existed. Maybe worth a sticky? I added my nearest favorite field, but I have 3 others to add. The website is pretty spartan right now for my neck of the woods, but I'm sure the coasts have many more input already.

Yeah, John B is making an effort to keep it up to date, I got the same mail. And during the original posting he was extremely helpfull getting the posting correct since our parks don't really have street addresses.

I'd encourage everybody to pitch in and post up their favorite areas, especially if you hold any regular events like Chico's First Sunday Fly, Ripon's Second Sunday Fly and Clear Lake's Third Sunday Fly in our area. Get those events up on the Gone With The Wind Forum Calender too, I think any body posting in this events section has a button on the bottom to link the post to the calendar. The AKA also has a nice calendar available to all that is even more active then GWTW's. Get your event out there, don't pass up a bit of free publicity.

(Just gotta figure out how to get the Google Bot's to find the GWTW Calendar so it'll come up on a search)

« Last Edit: May 23, 2012, 07:46 PM by mikenchico »

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"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see" John W Lennon

"People do not quit playing because they grow old, they grow old because they quit playing" George Bernard Shaw

For the record though, while much of the Kitelife staff favors quad, we all fly dual line as well... But regardless, the flying locations listed this far are user-submitted and should generally be "universal" or have descriptions to the contrary.

We happily take suggestions as well, both Andy or I can be reached via the KiteMap contact page.

zoom in on google maps, there's a distance bar at the bottom left, at full zoom it goes down to 20 feet. I just made an educated guess using that, nobody is going to go measure your field to see if you are off by 20-30 feet (I hope).

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"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see" John W Lennon

"People do not quit playing because they grow old, they grow old because they quit playing" George Bernard Shaw

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